A recent map of North Atlantic currents shows warm, subtropical water being ferried far into the northern latitudes. The increased water temperature has enabled fast sea ice and glacier melt in recent years. (Source: Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Warmer ocean currents are driving Greenland's glacial melt.

It
remains to be seen exactly how much mankind understands the science
of climatology. While global climate models continue to be produced,
disproved, corrected, and debated in the administration, there is
still some solid research being done. And that research keeps showing
that there's a possibility that climate science is missing large
tracts of data it needs.

Recently DailyTech reported
on research concerning the Bering
Strait and how this comparatively small geological formation
might be responsible or at the least involved in the regulation of
the North American temperature via ocean currents. Oceans have been
understood to partially control temperatures and overall climate for
years, but marine science has only recently been getting any media
time with all the political hubbub over the global climate change
debates.

A multi-institutional research team, led by Fiamma
Straneo, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution physical
oceanographer, has been studying
ice loss in Greenland, particularly in the Sermilik Fjord, which
connects the Irminger Sea to the Helheim glacier. The last decade has
seen accelerated ice loss in Greenland -- the Helheim glacier has
already retreated by several kilometers.

Unfortunately, the
area has not been monitored regularly for long enough to perfectly
reconstruct the ice melts before the recent accelerated melt, but a
combination of ship and moored survey data, combined with temperature
and depth data taken from the radio collars of hooded seals in the
area have allowed them to piece together just how quickly things can
change.

They found that changes in the North Atlantic ocean
currents have been bringing much warmer, subtropical water further
and further north. Water as warm as four degrees celsius was found
during the time data. That warm water combined with swift current
propagation has enabled the massive uptake in Greenland's glacial
ice. The warmer water quickly moves through the fjords, taking away
with it the melted ice and keeping the temperatures relatively
warm.

Straneo explains, "This is the first extensive
survey of one of these fjords that shows us how these warm waters
circulate and how vigorous the circulation is. Changes in the
large-scale ocean circulation of the North Atlantic are propagating
to the glaciers very quickly — not in a matter of years, but a
matter of months. It's a very rapid communication."

She
goes on to stress how little is known about ocean-glacier
interactions and that continuous observation will be extremely
important in coming to a full picture of how they affect each other
and sea-level regulation. It is also likely that understanding how
these entities cooperate will help understand how the ocean currents
and sea ice as a whole may affect regional and global climates. A
rapid influx of cool, fresh water could serve to disrupt the global
ocean current system, known as the Ocean Conveyor even as the area
appears to be warming.